Garment hanger



' R. GUYER GARMENT HANGER Oct. 29, 1940.

Filed Sept. 12, 1938 Re nold's Patented Oct. 29, 1940 PATENT oFF csGARMENT HANGER Reynolds Guyer, St. Paul, Minn, assigpor to Waldorf PaperProducts Company, St. Paul, Minn.,

a corporation of Mimiesota Application September 12, 1938, Serial No.229,403 I 3 Claims.

My invention relates to garment hangers and particularly to garmenthangers constructed with wire frame members and has for an object toprovide supporting means attached to one or more of the frame members bymeans of which garments supported thereon are supported throughout agreater area than where directly supported on the frame members, therebypreventing creasing.

Another object of the invention resides in providing a garment hanger inwhich the sup-porting means may be folded into the plane of the frameofthe hanger to occupy a minimum amount of space when in disuse.

An object of the invention resides in constructing the garment hangerwith. aframe formed of wire to provide converging side frame members anda cross frame member all lying in a common plane, and in providing thesupporting means with three supporting members, one attached to eachframe member of the frame.

A feature of the invention resides in constructing said supportingmembers substantially planiform and in pivoting the same to the framemembers for pivotal movement about the axes of said frame members sothat thesaid supporting members may be moved from positionssubstantially in the plane of said frame to positions extendingtransversely of the plane of the frame.

Another object of the invention resides in constructing said supportingmembers from strips of paper and in pivoting said supporting memberslongitudinally of the strips and medially of the lateral edges thereofto said frame members.

An object of the invention resides in constructing the supportingmembers from two thicknesses of paper secured together marginally andproviding a space therebetween through which the frame members extendand by means of which the supporting members are pivotally attached.

to the frame members of the frame.

With the foregoing and other objects in View, which will appear in thefollowing description, the invention resides in the novel combinationand arrangement of parts and in the details of construction hereinafterillustrated and/or described.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a garment hanger illustrating anembodiment of my invention and showing the supporting members in erectedposition.

Fig. 2 is an elevational view of the structure shown in Fig. 1 with thesupporting members in -55 collapsed position.

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view taken on line 33 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is across sectional view taken on line 3-4 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 5 is a cross sectional view of a modification of the invention.

In the use of wire garment hangers considerable difliculty has beenencountered due to .the fact that the framemembers of the hanger affordinsuflicient area for supporting the earments and when the garmentsremain on the hangers for any appreciable length of time creases areformed in the garments. It has heretofore been attempted to utilizepaper supporting members which are applied to the hanger when the sameis to be put into use. Such devicesare inconvenient to use andfrequently become disengaged when the garments are applied to thehanger, thereby causing considerable inconvenience and failing toproduce the desired results. Paper garment hangers have been completedwhich overcome these disadvantages but these occupy an appreciableamount of space and where large numbers of garment hangers are employedthe packages containing the same 106- come extremely bulky. The presentinvention providesa construction in which all of the disadvantages ofthe wire hanger are overcome and in which the advantages of both thewire and paper garment hangers are procured.

My invention as best shown in Fig. 2 consists of a frame I0 constructedfrom a single piece of wire, which is formed intermediate its ends withbent parts. H, I2, 53 and M to provide two converging side frame membersl5 and I6 and a cross frame member H. v

The'ends l8 and IQ of the piece of wire from whichthe frame isconstructed are twisted together, as indicated at 2|, to-form a shankwhich I have designated by the reference numeral 22. 4 The end l8terminates atthe locality of this shank, while the end-l9 projectsoutwardlybeyond the same and is bent to form a hook 23, by means ofwhich the garment hanger may be hung upon a pole, hook, or othersupport.

Attached to the frame [0 is a supporting means indicated in its entirelyby the reference numeral 24. This supporting means consists of threesupporting members 25, 26, and 21, of which the supporting member isattached to the frame member 15, the supporting member 26 is attachedtoframe member l6, and the supporting member 2i is attached to the framemember i1. These various supporting members will now be described indetail.

The supporting member 21 consists of two strips or layers of paper 28and 29, which are elongated in form and of sufiicient width to give thedesired supporting area when the garments are mounted upon the same.These strips are formed with two longitudinal scores 3| and 32, whichdivide the strips into central portions 33 and marginal portions 34 and35. The marginal portions 34 and 35 are secured together by gluing,while the intermediate or central portions 33 are free from glue toprovide longitudinally extending spaces 36 therebetween. In theattachment of the supporting member 21 to the frame member l1 the twostrips 28 and 29 are first coated with adhesive upon the marginalportions 34 and 35 thereof which face one another, and the said stripsplaced one above and one below the wire frame member l1. Pressure isthen applied to the marginal portions of the strips which causes thesame to become attached to one another and the parts then take the formshown in Fig. 2-.

In order to prevent interference between the various supporting memberswhen applying the sameto the frames, the strips are preferably at rightangles to the plane of the frame l0 when applied thereto and are of theform shown in Fig. 4, being substantially planiform.

The two supporting members 25 and 26 are constructed in identically thesame manner as the supporting member 21 and the description thereof willnot be repeated. These supporting members are also preferably attachedto the frame members l5 and I6 while in a position at right angles tothe plane of the frame H).

The supporting member 21 is of a length greater than the length of theframe member I1 and is constructed at its ends with two notches 31 and38. By means of this construction tabs 39 are formed on the ends of thesupporting member 21, which tabs are adapted to straddle the bent parts[I and I2 of the frame H] when the supporting member is swung intooperative position, thus causing said bent parts to be re-' ceivedwithin the notches 31 and 38. The tabs 39 thus limit the rotation of thesupporting member 21 by engagement with the bent portions H and I2,thereby maintaining the same in operative position.

The converging frame members l5 and I6 are constructed at their upperends with substantially horizontal portions 4| adjoining the bends |3and M. The supporting members 25 and 26,

similar to the supporting member 21, are formed with notches 42 whichprovide at the ends of said supporting members tabs 43. The portions 4|of the frame members l5 and I6 are adapted to be received in the notches42 as shown in the Fig. 2 and the tabs 43 engage the horizontal portions4| and limit turning of the supporting members in the same manner as thetabs 32.

The use of the invention is as follows. When the garment hangers areconstructed at the factory, they come as shown in Fig. 2 with thesupporting members 25, 26 and 21 disposed substantially in the plane ofthe frame It! and with the said supporting members arranged withreference to one another and to the frame as illustrated;

By means of the construction shown, the supporting members becomepivotally mounted upon the frame members by means of the elongatedspaces 35 formed between the strips 28 and 29 of the said supportingmembers, thus permitting the supporting members to be swung frompositions in the plane of the frame NJ, as shown in Fig. 2, to positionsat right angles thereto, as

shown in Fig. 1. After erection of the parts, the tabs 39 of thesupporting member 21 straddle the bent portions H and I2 of the framel0, and the bent portions II and I2 are received in the notches 31 and38. Thereafter the supporting member 21 is squeezed together and bentalong the scores 3| and 32, which cause the strips 28 and 29 of thesupporting member to buckle at the central portion 33 thereof and whichgives to the supporting member 21 a U-shaped cross section. Since thesupporting members 25 and 26 are constructed in the same manner, thesaid supporting members may be swung outwardly and formed to give thesame U-shaped cross section, as shown in Fig. 3. Since the verticalportions 4| of the frame members l5 and I6 normally occupy the samerelation with respect to the notches 42 as the bent portions and I2occupy with reference to notches 31, the supporting members 25 and 26may be moved into erected position in the same. manner. After the partshave been erected, the tabs 43 prevent rotation of the supportingmembers 25 and 25 and the tabs 39 likewise prevent rotation of thesupporting member 21 whereby said supporting members are held in erectedposition so that the garments may be hung upon the same. After thesupporting members are properly positioned the garment hanger is used inthe customary manner.

Although I have illustrated the supporting members of the invention asconstructed from two strips of paper, glued together along the marginsthereof, it can readily be comprehended that the same may be securedtogether by wire, stitching, riveting or otherwise. Also the saidsupporting members may be constructed from single strips of paper andthe stitching extended across the supporting member and frame member andforming a hinge therefor. In Fig. 5, which is a view similar to Fig; 3of a modification of the invention, this form of construction has beenshown. In this figure the frame member has been designated by thereference numeral 1 and the supporting member by the reference numeralI21. In this case a single strip of mate- 4 rial is used and a niunberof staples I28 secured to the central portion I33 of the supportingmember to pivotally attach the same to the frame member.

The advantages of my invention are manifest. An extremely simple andpractical construction is provided by means of which a garment hangerhaving the advantages of both a wire and a paper garment hanger isprocured. The supporting means may be attached to any of the existingwire garment hangers now in common use without alteration orreconstruction thereof. The supporting means being permanently mountedon the wire frame cannot become loose nor accidentally removedtherefrom, as is frequently the case where detachable supporting membersare used. By means of the notches and tabs formed on the ends of thesupporting members, the same are held in proper position with respect tothe frame, thereby facilitating the use of the garment hanger. Myimproved garment hanger can be constructed at a nominal expense.

Changes in the specific form of my invention, as herein disclosed, maybe made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from thespirit of my invention.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to protectby Letters Patent is:

1. A garment hanger comprising a wire frame having a plurality of framemembers arranged in co-planar relation, a supporting member consistingof two layers of paper normally substantially planiform and elongated inform, said layers being arranged on opposite sides of one of said framemembers, said layers being secured together outwardly of said framemember to pivotally support the supporting member on said frame member.

2. A garment hanger comprising a wire frame having a plurality of framemembers arranged in co-planar relation, a supporting member consistingof two elongated strips of paper applied to one of said frame members,said strips being disposed one on each side thereof and said framemember extending medially of the strips, said strips being securedtogether marginally toprovide an elongated space intermediate the edgesof the strips in which the frame member is disposed, said spaceaccommodating swinging movement of the supporting member with referenceto the axis of the frame member.

3. garment hanger comprising a wire frame having a plurality of framemembers arranged in co-planar relation, a plurality of elongatedsupporting members constructed of strips of paper normally planiform inshape and extending along said frame members, and other strips of papernormally substantially planiform and extending along the first namedstrips on the opposite sides of said frame members, said strips beingsecured together along both the lateral marginal portions thereof incontact with one another to envelope saidframe members and to formlongitudinally extending grooves serving as hinges for pivotallysupporting said supporting members for swinging movement on said framemembers, said supporting members being adapted to swing fromsubstantially co-planar positions to positions extending substantiallyat right angles to the plane of the frame.

REYNOLDS GU'YER. 20

